Chapter Thirty-Eight: WARNING: Uh, kinda confusing...Last chapter! Can't believe it!

After that, Allie and Greg settled in perfectly to parenthood. They worked easily as a team, never argued over who had the bigger responsibility - of course, though, it had to be Allie - and they always made time for each other. Andrina was, quite possibly, the most perfect non-adult around. She hardly ever cried, drank a ton of milk and did nothing but smile during the day. She spent a lot of time in Greg's arms, and even Bonnie was slightly won over by her brilliance. Michelle and Frank volunteered to babysit whenever they could, Olaf was always on hand and there wasn't a person in the lab that didn't fawn over her. Even Hodges. The first night they spent in Glen House, Allie spent half of the night just waiting for Andrina to make some sort of noise, but nothing. Surprisingly, she began sleeping throughout the night, never once making a peep, which made it a lot easier for Allie and Greg. Allie had gained complete control after about the fourth week, beginning to lose that extra baby-weight, standing up to Bonnie whenever she was trying to interfere.

"Mom! Really, I can do it..." Allie was in the sitting room, inches away from her own mother, trying to dress Andrina whilst also chatting to Grissom on the other line of the phone. Bonnie, of course, had to be right there, in on the action. Damned Greg. He was off at Papa Olaf's house, trying to fix the satellite for Greta when he could've been doing at least one of her extra jobs. Andrina was busy trying to grab a hold of one of Allie's fingers while Grissom was muttering something about a missing case file. Bonnie was next to Allie, motioning that she should be the one changing Andrina. Allie furrowed her brows, deeply. "Listen, Grissom, I don't know anything about the Kline case, other than it was Greg and Nick and Sara...oh, you fabulous little baby, just you sit right there." Allie perched the phone on her shoulder while she tugged Andrina's hand through the pink baby-grow. "No, Grissom, not you. Well, why don't you ask Sara? Oh. Mom! I can do it, just..." Allie took the phone in her hand, let Andrina lie there for a few moments and shut her eyes. She turned to Bonnie, very displeased look on her face. "Mom, could you just go over there for a few minutes, please?"

Bonnie scoffed and stood up. "Fine, fine. I can see when I'm not wanted." Oh, brilliant. The last thing Allie needed - or wanted - was for Bonnie to start rambling on about how they hadn't ever seen eye to eye. So what? They were related. It was legal. Allie rolled her eyes to Andrina, shaking her head, mockingly.

"Griss, I have to go, but I'll come in later and help you look for it, okay? Outstanding, see you." With the phone call finally ended, Allie returned to Andrina, getting her changed in record time. Once that was over, she stood up, pulling the baby along with her. "Oh, you are such a fantastic little lady...yep, I know. He is a pain, but what are we gonna do about it, huh?" She glanced up and noticed Bonnie leaning over the counter, back turned to her and Andrina. She rolled her eyes once more and walked over to her. "Alright, Mom. I want none of this huffy business. I didn't mean that you're unwanted-"

"Sounded like it to me, Dear. All I was trying to do was help. Why does nobody ever see it like that?" Sometimes, Allie just wanted to take Bonnie, shake her and tell her to grow directly up.

"Mom." Allie had been having a thoroughly brilliant time, just hanging out with Andrina, getting to learn her quirks, finding out what she liked, what she didn't like. Then Bonnie arrived. She began rambling on about how Allie should make Greg help out more than he was - However, in Allie's opinion, Greg was doing just fine on his own -, how she should be breast-feeding - Ha! Not a chance - and how she should concentrate on one thing at one time. If Allie Sanders/Moore was an expert in one particular thing, it was the area of multi-tasking. "Seriously. I can do this, I've taken on way more years ago-"

"What, Greg?" Bonnie Mullins was not a happy lady on this particular day. Allie knew it. She just knew it! She widened her eyes and glanced down at Andrina. Bonnie hadn't ever been pleased about Greg and Allie, no matter if she was just talking to him or if she was trying to disguise a snarky comment behind a joke, Allie always knew it. Just as she was about to delve into that statement, Greg burst through the door and almost bounded over to her and Andrina.

"Hey, my two best girls..." He kissed Allie on the cheek, hand resting protectively over her hip, and scooped Andrina right out of her arms. He turned to see Bonnie casting her frosty gaze on him. "And Bonnie."

"Hello, Greg. Good day at the office?" Bonnie folded her arms, eyeing Greg and Andrina up, carefully. Allie wondered if she was watching in case he made some sort of a slip-up, some distressingly bad move with the baby.

Greg shrugged, voice raising to it's highest possible octave before settling in at his natural tone. "Yeah, it was fine. Solved a case. Got promoted." He raised his head to a very, very happy Allie.

"You didn't!"

"I did." He'd only been working hard for it for the last five weeks. It was about damn time Grissom got his finger out and did something about it.

"Aaw, hey!" Allie ambled over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him in a way that should not be witnessed by a parent, or a child, for that matter. "Congratulations, Greg."

Just as Greg was about to mutter something, modestly, of course, Bonnie arched a perfectly-shaped eyebrow at him. "So, this means you'll be away from home more?"

Greg glanced at Bonnie, then at Allie and finally settled his eyes on Andrina. For a very tiny baby, she had a major death-grip on his finger. "Yeah, well...not really...pretty much the same as I always am. Except for conventions and stuff like that." He looked back at Allie. "And I don't intend on leaving these two." Allie grinned.

"Well, just see that you don't." Bonnie picked her over-sized handbag off the counter and placed the strap over her shoulder. "Anyway, I have to go. Myself and Carl are heading out for dinner."

Allie's smile widened. Things were finally going her way. "Indeed...say hello to him for me, will you?"

Bonnie raised her eyebrows and nodded. In a rare, strange, parallel-universe-moment, Bonnie reached forward and pulled Allie into a hug. This had only happened twice in Allie's twenty-nine years. "I will. You guys take care, okay?" She turned to her granddaughter and ran a hand over her head. "Bye, Andie." And then she sauntered out of the front door. Greg and Allie exchanged a thoroughly-confused glance at each other and then shrugged it off.

"So...how's she been?" Greg took a hold of Allie's hand and guided her over to the sofa before gently settling a half-asleep Andrina into the Moses basket. Allie tilted her head to the side and smiled.

"She has been a dream, Greg. It's like she's not even here. She sleeps, she eats, she plays with my hair and then she goes right on back to sleep. I think I love her, Greg! Oh, and she hates any kind of facial hair on a man, so no 'tache for you. Uh, Dylan was here...let me tell you, if he even considers having kids, it'll be the world's biggest mistake. He nearly dropped her, Greg. Can you imagine?" Allie shook her head and examined her hand. Greg grinned to himself and stared at Allie for a few moments. He was incredibly lucky to have found her, this singular creature of perfection and amusement. He loved how she could go five whole minutes of talking without any reply, or any indication that she could stop. "Anywho, back to you...Mr. CSI Level Two." She leant over and kissed him on the cheek, affectionately tousling his hair as she did. "I'm uberly proud, Greg."

As she was about to pull away, go and do other house-wife-ish things - she loved the idea of being a house-wife - he put his arms around her and pulled her towards him, tightly. "Mmph..." He kissed her on the head, hand nervously fumbling around with the hem of her shirt. "I love you, Allie."

Allie smirked and rolled her eyes. "Jeg elsker deg, Greg." And she curled up next to him, reminding him of how they used to be, in the early days of courtship. Allie, who wouldn't call him anything but Sanders, rolled her eyes so much they were in danger of staying that way and over-used the phrase, 'holy cow!'. Now she was a power-house woman, mother, fantastic wife and what could Greg do to show her how much he adored her? There really wasn't anything half-good enough for her. Suddenly, he remembered what day it was, and wondered if Allie remembered it, too. Now he definitely had to do something for her, never mind the fact that she was working herself to a stick.

After dinner, Greg dropped Andrina off with his mother and returned back to Glen House, finding Allie cleaning the kitchen counter. He sidled up to her, and placed a hand on her waist. She jumped, momentarily, previously unaware of his presence. "Jeez, man." She pushed her eyes up, Heavenward, and then glanced back at Greg. Still. Still he had that unfortunate honour of being able to turn her into jelly with just one look, or touch. Allie grinned, breezily, and looked back at the cloth in her hand. "So...you wanted to talk to me?"

In the last forty minutes or so after dinner, Greg had told Allie that the food was excellent, he was going out with Andrina to see his mom and that they needed to talk. After that, her mind had filled with all the wrong thoughts. Since then, she'd been cleaning things frantically, energetically and had been singing loudly to herself. Something that wasn't at all possible when there was a seven-month old child in the house. Greg grinned and nodded, eagerly. "Yes. I do." With that, he took her hand, leading her off into the sitting room. Now she was worried.

Allie glanced around the room, expecting to see a sleeping form in the Moses basket, but she saw nothing. "What did you do with Andrina?"

"Uh, sold her. My fellow Norwegian's seem to like kids that eat a lot." Greg sat her down, face completely serious. Allie raised her eyebrows as she glanced around the room. "Relax, my mom's looking after her for the night."

Allie nodded, looking down at her hand. "So...what's wrong? I mean...is anything wrong? Have you got a problem?" Could she help, would've been her next question, had Greg's lips not crashed onto hers. She took her hand and ran it through his hair, almost collapsing against his touch. She had always been strong, but Greg made her weak, every cell in her body just needed him, and it showed, blatantly. She wrapped both arms around his neck, all worries and woeful thoughts exiting her mind. Greg pulled away from her and smirked.

"Happy anniversary." Anniversary? This was news to Allie.

"What anniversary?" It seemed that, after all the stress her body went through in recent months, she now had the ability to put her foot directly into her mouth. Greg gave her a teasing look and kissed her again.

"The anniversary of you coming to the lab. Seven years. Congratulations." He threw her a lopsided smile. Allie widened her eyes. Seven years. Jesus. How did that happen? "It also marks the first time I ever had a dirty thought involving you." Allie giggled. Greg took her hand and traced his forefinger along it. "And, Allie? I just...I don't think I can ever tell you how much I love you...cause I don't even know if words can do it any sort of justice, but...you are..." Greg stopped, considering his words for a few moments. On his way back to Glen House, he had milled over what to say, how to say it, how to sound like a man whilst also using and abusing his romantic side. Allie's eyes softened as she tilted her head towards her left shoulder. She didn't care a jot if he continued.

"Oh, Greg..."

"Hold on a sec, I just have to say this before I forget it all." He blinked a few times, inhaled, exhaled. After all the times he'd told her he loved her, a person might be fooled into thinking this was easy. It wasn't. "Anyway, you mean the world to me, Al, and I just want you to know that. You deserve everything brilliant and shiny..." Shiny? "...you're the Bonnie to my Clyde," He'd stolen that off a TV show. "The Nancy to my Sid Vicious...the..." Okay, now he was running out of ideas, and Allie knew it, and that was why she pulled him to her and kissed him, feverishly. She grabbed his hand and pulled him along the corridor, up the stairs, into the bedroom and onto the four-poster. They rid each other of any garments, kissed, touched and generally enjoyed each other for the rest of the night. Allie noticed how these days, Greg was preferring to kiss her senseless rather than to greedily let her take him over. And she loved it. At two in the morning, Greg was hovering above Allie, hands buried into her hair, lips pressing themselves against her neck, kissing, nibbling, occasionally whispering full-hearted little words of desire, passion and praise to her, hot breath tickling her neck, every touch getting to her more and more. Allie grinned and trailed her hands up and down his back, his arms, her hands through his hair, thoroughly exalted and exhausted. After a few moments, Greg sighed, happily, and rolled off of her, entangling his legs with hers. He pulled the large, fluffy blanket up from the bottom of the bed and wrapped it around himself and Allie, snuggling up to her. He let his arm rest across her ribs as he circled his finger up and down her side. He was glad the creature of his dreams was here, right now, tangible and inimitable, utterly fantastic.

Little did they know, at that point, that they would spend the next sixty-odd years together, much in the same way. Anthony Sanders would be born a year later, growing up to be an exact replica of his father. Andrina took after Allie, mostly, and yet there was a twinge of Greg in all of her intricate little actions. She would be artsy, singing her way throughout America, and yet she wouldn't have ever dreamt of leaving Las Vegas. Anthony wrote. A lot. Poetry, short-stories, science-fiction- everything. Allie and Greg couldn't have been prouder. She wrote every evening into her book, rain or shine, documenting every aspect of her life. Greg worked as a CSI for eight years before he returned to the lab, unable to handle the gory, angst-ridden cases that bothered Allie so much. Everything that he had seen made him appreciate blood and semen all the more. He taught both the kids how to drive, how to play basketball, all of life's essentials, whilst never ignoring Allie. Sure, they'd had their arguments - sometimes lasting more than two days -, but they always more than made up for it. Everyone in the lab went on to lead successful, fulfilled lives. Grissom and Sara had a very sneaky, very intimate ceremony with only their colleagues there for moral support. Fourteen months later, Lisa-Rose Grissom was born, lived a few years and then turned into a scarily-smart child that almost mirrored her mother for looks and her father for brains. Nick and Antoinette never rightly saw eye-to-eye, but they kept it together over the years, while Bobby went on to be a very successful detective. Warrick and Tina divorced, giving Warrick space and time to learnt that Catherine Willows had been under his nose all this time, but that it wasn't ever too late to act on his feelings. David Hodges...was still David Hodges, but Monica Kessler adored him and vice versa. As for Allie's family, Bonnie and Carl divorced each other, while Bonnie moved onto Darnell, a very young, very handsome baseball player. Dylan married a red-haired, green-eyed model, while Frank never really got around to it, for one reason or another... Greg always thought that it was to do with his irrepressible crush on Allie. Allie suspected he wasn't too interested in the female race. The hardest things were always to do with coping with the loss of a family member, in Greg's case, Olaf, in Allie's, it was her grandmother. Both events took major tolls on the both of them, but throughout it all, they were there, arms always wide open for the other one to find comfort. Greta died a few years later after a string of tumultuous affairs on holiday, leaving the house to Greg and Allie. They fixed it up, foraged through every box, every photograph and then they moved Michelle and Jimmy Meade into it. Michelle ended up as a nurse, with a very large, very adorable family, headed by Jack, a doctor. Greg referred to Olaf almost every day, even teaching Andrina the odd bit of Norwegian. Anthony already made sure that it was his second-language by the time he graduated from college. Once the kids had moved out, Allie and Greg, for a while, anyway, weren't too sure what to do with themselves. So they went on a month-long holiday, rediscovering their youth, almost. Youth, indeed. Neither of them changed much throughout the years. Allie, however, demanded that as soon as he grew a white hair on his head, Greg had to invest on a strong-hold hair-dye. Vanity, after all, wasn't a thing to worry about in Las Vegas.

"Hey, Greg?" Allie smiled lightly at Greg, fingers tousling his spiky hair, sending him into a blissful, catatonic state. Greg opened one eye and smiled.

"Mm?"

"Could we stay like this? I mean, as long as we can?"

Greg grinned. "'Course we can. We can stay like this for as long as you want us to, Al." With that, he rolled over onto her stomach, planting several lazy kisses along her belly before drifting off to sleep.

But had someone came up to Allie and Greg and told them this while they were lying on the four-poster-bed, savoring each other, loving each other to their fullest possible abilities, they would've said that they were mental. It was never easy, but, Allie thought, it was always fun and there wasn't anyone she would rather have lived her life with. At the end, it had been said to her that swans sing before they die, and it occurred to her, as she thought back to everything they had gone through, if anything, Allie and Greg had sung the loudest, best song that they could.

And they wouldn't have changed a thing.

Le fin!

A/N: Oh, jeez, that was super-hard to write! I am honestly, fighting tears at this very moment. Urgh, anyway, I know it was super-cheesy, and the hole swans-sing-before-they-die thing was in a poetry book...think it was Yeats, but I'm not a poetry-buff, so... that one of my Gran's dearest friends told me to write. See, he was over here in January for his uncle's funeral, and he is just the coolest dude, I tell you, so I had to use it. Oh, my eyes! Now...Hope you guys enjoyed the ending...I did plan on much more dialogue, but really, what more words can be said? Well, none, really, cause it's getting very late over here, so!

Thank you so much to each and every single reviewer, I adore you all! And I am so happy that I've got half-as many reviews as I have!! I honestly never expected anyone to like this fic, at all, so woot. OH! OH, OH!! I also meant to say that, for the amount of sheer fluff going on earlier on, I do not have a dirty mind! I just like writing fluff! And I never got half the stuff written into this chappie as I was going to, but did you really want me to cry throughout the whole thing??

Now, boring stuff ahead; the disclaimer. I don't own CSI - but I did get CSI Magazine, which rocks! -, or any of it's characters. I do, however, own:

Allie Moore, Andrina, Anthony, Dylan, Frank, Michelle - kinda, LOL -, Monica - ditto -, Bonnie, Carl, Jimmy Meade, Ashley Kelly - the brazen hussy -, Rancid Molecules, Danni, the sleaze-bag waiter whose name I have misplaced...Antoinette and any other strange, peculiar characters. AND I've just noticed that the new-found Sanders family's names all start with A...Andrina, Allie, Anthony...weird. I must like A names.

Okay, please leave me a wee review...I have to go before I burst into unmanageable, hysterical tears of doom!! Thanks again for sticking with me through all the writer's block and fits of rage, LOL. Oh, and I MIGHT post the other fic in about two weeks...Mad As Rabbits - remember that!

Peace, Lots of Love and Major Unity,

Mary-Louise

XOX